JERUSALEM: The head of Israel’s military, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, resigned on Tuesday over his responsibility for its “failure” during the Palestinian group Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023.
In his resignation letter, released by the army, Halevi said he was leaving “due to my acknowledgement of responsibility for the (military’s) failure on October 7”.
He said he was leaving at a time of “significant successes” for the military, though he also acknowledged that “not all” of Israel’s war goals had been met.
“The objectives of the war have not all been achieved. The army will continue to fight to further dismantle Hamas and its governing capabilities, ensure the return of the hostages”, and enable Israelis displaced by attacks to return home, he said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked Halevi “for his many years of service and his leadership” during the war, saying he “brought significant success”.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid praised Halevi for stepping down and called on Netanyahu to follow suit.
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“Now, it is time for them to take responsibility and resign – the prime minister and his entire catastrophic government.”
Major General Yaron Finkelman, the head of Israel’s southern military command, which is responsible for Gaza, also resigned.
The pair’s resignation comes days into a ceasefire with Hamas that brought to a halt 15 months of war sparked by the deadliest attack in Israel’s history.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said he would meet with potential successors “in the coming days”, according to his office.
Halevi requested to leave his role on March 6, saying “until then, I will complete the inquiries into the events of October 7 and strengthen the (military’s) readiness”.
In a televised address on Tuesday evening, he said: “The military must provide answers for the failure of October 7 and learn from its mistakes.”
On October 7, 2023 thousands of Palestinian fighters stormed into southern Israel from Gaza.
Their attack resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
They also took 251 hostages into Gaza, including women, children and elderly people.
Gaza was heavily surveilled at the time of the attack and surrounded by a high-tech border fence complete with sensors and remote-operated machine guns.
The were able, despite Israel’s state-of-the-art defences, to storm a major military base as well as residential communities across the south and a music festival, where they committed atrocities.
It took the military three days to completely clear the from Israeli territory.
The ensuing war has levelled much of Gaza and, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, killed 47,107 people, a majority of them civilians, figures the United Nations has said are reliable.
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